Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 08:32:59 -0700
Reply-To: wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: 81 Vanagon in need of restoration...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I'm writing to you from Texas.
That is important because Vanagons and Westies don't have much resale
value here.
I don't think I caught whether your Vanagon was a standard 7 person
hauler or a Westy.
If your Vanagon is a standard van it will never (please don't hit me) be
worth half what a Westy of the same year and condition will be.
After an eight year relation ship with an 83 Westy I felt much the same
as you do. I had sweated blood installing engines, transmissions, hand
waxing the original finish.
I finally decided to sell it.
This didn't come to me in a bright shining light or a clap of thunder the
time had gotten here where I looked at my Westy parked almost every
weekend while I stayed home. My camping days were limited and the
presence of the Westy there just made me want to scream because I
couldn't get out and go.
During my eight years of ownership I also bought and sold Westy. In the
process of buying and selling I took the best parts from resale cars and
installed them on my Westy.
I managed to get near perfect bumpers, soft steering wheels, nice
carpets, upgraded the interior to the LS and many more little things that
I felt made my Westy different, more personalized.
Here is my advise: Spend money on the things that can be swapped to
another Vanagon (Westy if you find a nice one). Keep up a casual search
for a Westy that can in your mind be the ideal vehicle. This could be an
eight year project for you like it was for me.
The more of those 100$ bills you pass out for parts and repairs the more
sense this will start to make.
I had a new 64 Pontiac with the paper dealer plates on it, in my driveway
when my first son was to be born. You guessed it, we had to push it out
of the way and go in my $125.00, 49 Pontiac work car.
Seems children and cars are mile markers in many lives ........... don't
get the priorities mixed up.
Stan Wilder
On Tue, 10 Jun 2003 03:21:03 -0400 Joe Denison <Misto619@NETSCAPE.NET>
writes:
> Lots of feedback from lots of different places...wow!
>
> First off, replacing it isn't an option. My wife and I are more
> sentimentally attached to that van than is probably healthy. We were
> homeless for a while and actually lived in that van. We won't part
> it out or junk it, it just isn't going to happen. Letting it sit
> there and rust while we drive around in a newer van isn't an option
> either. While we both realize that it is an inanimate object
> incapable of emotions or feelings, we aren't and often we're slaves
> to our emotions. We don't throw things to the junk yard because they
> are old. Were it to catch fire and burn, that would be different.
> Were a tree to fall on it, that would be different. But I've already
> had more than $1500 worth of work done on it and I just can't let
> that kind of money go to the junk yard.
>
> I understand that to a lot of people, throwing a lot of money into
> something like this doesn't make a lot of sense. Therefore, junking
> it and getting another one sounds like a good idea. To be honest, it
> probably is a better idea, but it isn't what we want to do. We want
> to be able to drive the van that brought our daughter home from the
> hospital. We want to drive the van that provided us shelter when we
> had no other place to go. I'm rambling on like a fanatic, aren't I?
> Well, so be it.
>
> To the practical side of it, I have had all the brake hardware other
> than the master cylinder replaced all the way around. I've replaced
> the gas tank (though I didn't get all the hoses in their proper
> places), and I've paid out a lot of money to a garage I won't
> mention by name to find that the van is still not in the condition I
> wanted it in (driveability wise). I've replaced the muffler and tail
> pipe (no big deal to some, but to me it was). I've also spent too
> many hours staring down into the engine wondering what I was missing
> to let it beat me now.
>
> Anyway, thanks for the injection of common sense, but as usual, I'll
> have to take a pass and side with emotionalism over rationality.
> Give me this much credit as you laugh at me, I at least understand
> my problem, even if I'm unwilling to do what may well be the 'right
> thing' about it.
>
> With all sincerity and thanks,
> Joe Denison
>
>
> --
> Joe Denison
> misto619@netscape.net
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network.
> Comprehensive protection for your entire computer. Get your free
> trial today!
> http://channels.netscape.com/ns/computing/mcafee/index.jsp?promo=393397
>
> Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now!
> http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455
>
>
________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
| 
